


Merinthophobia (Getting a Revamp - Will be posted to a different work, same name)

by Lostflamefox



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Errortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Language of Flowers, Nihilism, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pets, Philosophy, Predestined Soulmates, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader is a Nihilist, Reader-Insert, Soulmates, reader is female
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22027855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lostflamefox/pseuds/Lostflamefox
Summary: Merinthophobia (from Greek merintho, meaning “string”) is the fear of being bound or tied up.She didn’t believe in things like fate or destiny. They were words thrown around casually between hopeless romantics to make themselves feel more important in the uncaring, chaotic nature of the universe. Destiny would bring some sort of purpose; fate would explain why things happened the way they did. To her, they were meaningless. Having her life figured out by some force of the universe - whether it be a god, goddess, or even something actually reasonable, like gravity - before she was even born was a terrifying thought. The thought of having no control over her actions or how she went about her life. It just wasn’t for her.That was still the case even when someone claiming to be her soulmate entered her life and changed its course forever.
Relationships: Sans (Undertale) & Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 17
Kudos: 60





	Merinthophobia (Getting a Revamp - Will be posted to a different work, same name)

It was a nice day outside.

The midday sun’s rays of warmth soaked into her comfortable black fleece jacket, warming up the material considerably. It contrasted sharply with the cold gusts of wind that often came with autumn, the breeze pushing against her backside and the back of her neck. She resisted the urge to turtleneck as she walked along the path, watching idly as the crisp, golden brown leaves were whisked past her by the breeze.

She found a suitable bench on the side of the path. The seat was cluttered with fallen leaves, though she swept them away with her hand before taking a seat. She could feel the dampness of the bench; it had rained the day before, though it was drier now and the skies were clear. If her work pants hadn’t been black, it might have left a faint mark, but she could sit without worry. She opened up her brown paper bag and dug through it to pull out her bland sandwich, unwrapping it and enjoying her lunch outside of the cramped break room.

The park was mostly empty. It  _ was _ a weekday, after all. Any children that might have frequented the playground were at school, and any adults that would go jogging on the various paths usually did so early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The small number of people there other than herself were doing their own, seperate things, and she was content to do the same and make the most of her lunch break. It was a good day out, and she wouldn’t let the opportunity slip past to breathe in the fresh air and bask in the colors of autumn.

She inhaled a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She took the time to enjoy the chill in the air, the fresh crispness of it. The trees around her in the park - oaks, maples, ashes, others she didn’t know the names of - were the source of the shower of gold, brown, and red leaves, starting their annual shedding of leaves. The evergreens - pines, spruces, and more - were still their usual dark green color, serving as the vibrant patches that would stick around in the cold months. Both the evergreens and the golden-brown leaf laden trees stood out against the tall, gray, concrete buildings of the city that surrounded the park, though everything was still bordered by the blue sky. She looked back down to her lunch after a couple of minutes, resolving to finish her lunch so she could go on a quick walk around the park before she had to head back into work.

As she ate, a couple strolled past her on the path. Their hands were clasped together, swinging back and forth idly as they walked side by side. Both had smiles on their faces, content and happy together; they tossed the occasional compliment to each other, doing the clich é “I love you more,” “no, I love  _ you _ more!” banter. One rose their clasped hands to do a playful hip-bump. The action was done right back, drawing a soft chuckle from the two. They passed by her within just a few moments as they went along their way, clearly intent to enjoy their day. She couldn’t help but stare the way that they’d gone for a while after they’d left, finally snapping out of her stupor to finish her lunch after way too much time had gone.

Seeing such a happy pair had been a reminder for her. A reminder that love was fleeting, nothing more than a chemical reaction in the brain that could very easily fade away with time. A reminder that forty to fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. A reminder that she had no significant other, and likely never would. She would have pointed out to them that they’re more likely to break up than not, but she didn’t want to start a fight when everybody was just minding their own business. Not that she thought she could emotionally handle a confrontation right now, anyway. She just wanted to enjoy her lunch on a nice day outside, where she could get some peace and quiet aside from the birdsong, the wind, and the distant sounds of traffic, and not have to deal with people - a sappy couple or otherwise.

ღ ---------- ღ

“I’m going to have to tear down your web soon, Nietzsche. It’s getting a little tangled,” she mumbled, removing the pins from the lid of the enclosure in order to slide off the mesh top. The enclosure’s walls were made of thin panes of glass, and it was taller than it was wide, making a rectangle. It was on the carpeted floor in the corner of the somewhat cluttered bedroom with at least half a foot of space between it and anything else, like a protective border. The inside of the enclosure was made for a spider; long sticks were propped up against the corners and a clump of fake vines was attached to one of the glass surfaces by a suction cup. There was no bedding at the bottom. A large spider’s web - once beautiful and delicately woven - spanned across the enclosure, now ratted with knots in some places and a few parts of the web that had completely fallen apart.

In the center of the web was a golden silk orb weaver female around the size of her hand. It shifted from its position at the movement, moving farther up the web, its black-tipped yellow legs seemingly tapping at the silk as it climbed upwards. The legs were separated into three segments, the first two yellow separated by black patellas covered in black hairs, ending in a black claw. Where the legs connected to the body they were black. The top of the head and thorax were white in color aside from the eyes, though the bottom and the chelicerae were black, and the pedipalp were yellow in color. The abdomen was elongated, like the legs, and mainly yellow in color; the part closest to the thorax was white, with white dots and markings adding accents to the rest of the abdomen.

Nietzche clambered onto the hand she offered, settling on the top of it as she slowly lifted the hand-sized spider out of the enclosure and off to the side. With her other hand, she grabbed a clear plastic spray bottle off of the nearby desk and gently misted the web. “There we are,” she murmured quietly, bringing the orb weaver back down into the enclosure and letting her climb off of her hand and hide in the corner, tucked under the biggest leaning branch. She slid the lid back into place and inserted the pins once more.

She turned her attention to another enclosure. This one was on top of a stand, just under a window in the back of the bedroom, a foot or so from the corner. The shelf under the stand had various items on it - feeding tongs, a mite deterrent and killing spray, a rounded plastic container with lid that had holes in it, and a plastic tub - all just laid haphazardly on it for later use. The enclosure itself wasn’t dissimilar to the other one, though was wider than it was tall. Its bottom had multiple inches of bedding with various tunnels and grooves dug into it. A tree-like wooden climbing piece was in the center, half-buried in the bedding and went straight up against the mesh netted lid, having various kinks and curves in the trunk. Beside it was another faux vine tangle attached to the glass with a suction cup and a log hide. To the other side was a water dish, shaped to look like a rock. It was around half-full. A heating lamp was placed on the mesh netting over the log hide, and a round thermometer was placed on the glass in the back of the enclosure.

Wrapped around the trunk of the climbing piece was an axanthic piebald ball python. It was female, and around 5 feet in length. It was longer than the climbing piece had space for, and the rest of the body disappeared into the bedding. The head and a couple inches past that were a light gray color with black markings, though it was just white beyond that patch. Various other color patches stood out against the predominantly white scales, light gray with black markings and tinges of black around some of the edges. Roughly half of the ball python was white, and half was colored. The snake didn’t react much besides a shift when she undid the pins to the lid, removed it, and began to lift the ball python out of the enclosure carefully. 

“You holding up okay, Aristophanes?” She cooed, letting the python wrap around her shoulders and neck so she could free up her hands. Aristophanes was more than happy to do so, her snout slightly nudging at the human’s jacket collar as though trying to burrow inside, though was easily deterred with a small rub to the forehead with her finger. She reached back into the enclosure to remove the water dish, inspecting it for a moment before turning around to leave the room.

Something on the bed that she hadn’t noticed before caught her eye.

Laying across her monochrome gray blanket was a flower. Not a small one, either, by any means. The head of the flower was three inches across, a stark contrast against the gray with its vibrant violet coloration. The petals were multi-layered, with four primary petals evenly distanced from each other around the center, and various others behind the primaries to fill up the gaps. Each petal was a dark purple at the edge, but faded to a lighter tint, almost white, where it connected to the center. The center itself had a darker purple mass that almost looked like a bulb in the middle, surrounded by a sea of small, short stamen.

She paused when seeing it, turning back around to quickly place the water dish back so she could come over to her bed and pick up the flower. “What the hell… how’d a flower get on my bed?” She was well aware her question wouldn’t be answered, but she let it hang in the air anyway as she inspected the flower curiously. She stroked the petals, feeling how soft they were, and let her thumbpad stroke across the center of the flower to get a feel of its texture. She’d nearly forgotten about the snake around her neck but was swiftly reminded when the ball python reached out to flicker its tongue at the petals and she moved back to the enclosure to put Aristophanes back onto the climbing piece.

Taking a deep breath, she sat on her bed and rolled the flower’s stem between her fingers idly, just thinking for a while. There weren’t many explanations as to how a flower - a kind she hadn’t seen before, and doubted grew wild in her city, though she doubted that mattered - ended up on her bed while she was at work. The few explanations she  _ could _ think of weren’t pleasant, considering she kept her door locked and nobody else but the owner of the apartment complex and her had keys to access the apartment. Somebody would have had to break in, and for what? Nothing was missing. Nothing was broken. Just left a flower for her to find and left without touching a single thing. It didn’t make sense. What was more perplexing was that her door was still locked when she arrived home, furthering the mystery. She supposed whoever broke in could lock the door behind them, but it just didn’t seem likely. Then again, the whole situation didn’t seem likely.

Not that she could do anything about it, she supposed. Besides, no harm was really done - it was just a flower, after all. She could worry about what it implied later. She stood up again and left her bedroom, going down the hall and through the living room into the kitchen. Filling up one of her taller cups with water, she set it down on the counter and placed the flower inside, letting the cup act like a vase. She went back to her room with the makeshift vase and pulled aside the blinds on her window to place the flower on her windowsill above Aristophanes.

Satisfied for now, she went back to what she was doing, not noticing or sensing the eyes watching her from another universe entirely.

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr, where you can ask me questions/see what the hell I'm doing.](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lostflamefox)
> 
> So... this is my latest mistake. A new fic. Like I haven't learned my lesson before about starting new fics when my plate is full. But, whatever - the good thing about this one is that I'm making the chapter lengths more flexible than usual if you couldn't tell by the chapter length of this one. I'm not gonna try and pack enough chapter enough to reach 4,000 words. ANYWAY - welcome to Merinthophobia, my new Error x Reader fic. If you're wanting to know what the flower means, its anemone, which just takes a simple google search to find the meaning of. But I'll go ahead and tell you anyway, haha. It means forgotten/forsaken love/affection, but also anticipation. I'd love to get comments, every time something's in my inbox I light up like an orphanage set on fire. Tell me what you think of it so far and what you think might happen! Also, keep an eye on the timeskip indicator - it's going to change in future chapters. Sorry if I forgot anything, haha.


End file.
